The Deception and the Decieved
by ladyofathens
Summary: A girl approaches Dr. Brennan, she said that she had information that might be considered "Interesting" regarding a former colleague and the Gormagon case. Hadn't that case been closed? Hadn't the killer be caught? What if there was more than one killer?...More than one apprentice? More importantly; what should happen to the person who discovers who it is?
1. A Pensive Glare

_ Disclaimer: I do not own bones. _

_P.S : T__he time line of the story does not specifically correspond to the timeline of the series, it is approximately 1-1 and half years after Zach is sent to the "loony bin" but the characters personal lives and the murder cases may be different from the original plot line of the TV series._

Chapter One: A Pensive Glare

A girl stood in front of the building, staring at it, ignoring the people staring at her as they passed in and out of doors, up and down the white steps.

Most would have considered their staring justified, she was quite a sight, her hair was frizzy and unkempt, she was wearing large,clunky combat boots which had large silver buckles that extended all the way up to her knees,and dark lipstick that complemented the rest of her disheveled dark clothing.

_well go on then._

The words of some unidentified source echoed through her mind, pressuring her to take a few steps, to enter the building, to do what she had come here to do.

She took a deep breath before walking though the doors of the large building, and after a brief conversation with the receptionist she was on her way to were she could find a well-known forensic anthropologist.

This particular well-known forensic anthropologist went by the name of Dr. Temperance Brennan, she was brilliant, and the best in her field, and with that reputation what graduate student wouldn't want to work with her? learn from her?

The girl looked back and remembered a time when she too had aspired to work with her, she had even requested to be her intern but was rejected by means of something as impersonal as a letter.

_There is no need to get upset of this, I'm sure she had her reasons._

That is what she had told herself, and truthfully she hadn't been about to let herself get upset over something a simple as a rejection letter, no, she was much too logical to let her emotions rule her life, especially when interests change, just as they had for her, and soon she had altered the course of her life by pursing different degrees, she worked hard, hard enough to earn three degrees, one in mineralogy, and in inorganic chemistry, and another in applied mathematics.

It could been seen as ironic that after all of that she was now on her way to see the very same woman who had rejected her and basically changed her life, but you see she did not have any time to mull over the irony, she had more important things to think about, and today her visit was strictly business.

She came to a pair of sliding glass doors, she had nearly attempted to walked strait through them, but she had caught herself at the last minute.

Once inside she stopped and looked around, if it had been any other time she might have wanted to fully examine the place in which she stood, and take in all of its beauty, but not today.

The girl started walking again, trying to get a closer look into the clear walls of each office, she knew what Dr. Brennan looked like, she had seen her once on TV, in an interview about her books.

The girl looked towards the platforms, though she did not see Dr. Brennan she did see two people leaning against the bars of the platform, there was a man and a woman, The girl noticed that they stood rather close to each other, the were both laughing at something the man had said, the girl guessed that they were a couple.T

The woman was very beautiful she had long shiny dark hair, warm brown eyes, and a friendly smile, the man had curly hair, bright blue eyes and was slightly shorter than the woman.

_"_But that can't be him..." the girl mumbled to herself, she titled her head to one side, squinting she tried to get a better look at him, but to no avail "curse you sightly but still irritatingly blurry eyesight" she mumbled as she made her way towards them, she might have said "hello" or any other type of greeting to announced her arrival if it hadn't been for the loud thuds that her boots made with every step she took, the jingling the buckles made alone would have been enough to make anyone look up in surprise, just as the couple had, the man with the bright blue eyes had looked slightly more surprised than the woman.

"Do you know where I could find a Dr. Brennan?" She asked them

"In there" The man said pointing to the office across from them.

"Thank you" The girl said before turning and heading towards the office, she knocked on the door and heard someone say "come in", she turned the door handle and walked in to the office, she then saw a woman sitting at a desk, she appeared to have been reviewing a set of X-rays prior to the girls interruption.

"I'm looking for a Dr. Brennan?" The girl asked as the woman turned her steely gaze towards the doorway, she had a firm jaw, pale green-blue eyes, and shoulder length chestnut colored hair.

"This is she, how may I help you?" Dr. Brennan eyed her carefully, anyone else might have shied away from her scrutinizing gaze, but the girl did not avert her eyes, she simply stared right back into Dr. Brennan's light eyes.

The girl heard a rustling of fabric, causing her to glance through the glass wall to her left, she caught sight of the edge of a dark blue lab coat, and became aware of the fact that she had an audience, she wondered if had also become aware of that, because when she turned back to face her Dr. Brennan's facial expression had changed very slightly into one that the girl could not quite put a name too, knowing, possibly? or was it irritation?

"I believe I have some information that you would find very interesting"

"And what has led you to that conclusion?"

"The information is regarding a former colleague of yours, one who is believed to be the apprentice of a serial killer you have come to know as the Gormagon... It seems that a great mistake has been made..."

* * *

Meanwhile:

"Who do think she was?" The curly haired man asked the dark haired woman next to him, he was still staring at the girl, his head was tilted to one side and his eyes were narrowed as though he were trying to remember something.

"I don't know.." The woman said, she too was staring after the girl as she walked away, listening to her loud footsteps echoing through the lab.

"Lets go find out" The man said, an mischievous grin tugging at the edges of his lips.

The two of them walked over to Dr. Brennan's office, making sure to steer clear of the glass walls, they the hid around the corner of the office near the door.

They heard a squeak, they assumed the sound was that of Dr. Brennan's chair as it turned to face her new visitor.

"Dr. Brennan?" they heard the girl asked

"This is she, how may I help you?"

The dark hair woman, who was the closest to the door and had been balancing on one foot in the cramped area, leaned forward very slightly and suddenly lost her balance, she would have fallen face first into the floor if the curly haired man hadn't grabbed her around the waist first,but it had not been soon enough, the edge of her lab coat had flashed briefly in front of the glass wall, the dark haired woman prayed silently that nobody inside the room had noticed.

They breathed a sigh of relief as they heard the voice of the girl once more.

"I believe I have some information that you would find very interesting"

"And what has led you to that conclusion?" asked the voice of Brennan.

"The information is regarding a former colleague of yours, one who is believed to be the apprentice of a serial killer you have come to know as the Gormagon... It seems that a great mistake has been made..."

The dark haired woman's face paled "Oh my God... Zach..."

* * *

"Okay, now let me get this strait, you called me down here to tell me that the kid has enough evidence to prove your little squints innocence, _but you cant use it?" _Said the FBI agent everyone seemed to call Booth with a look of skeptisim present on his face.

_"The kid _has a name, you know" the girl retorted "And I believe that I already informed you that it is October Caldwell" she was now glaring at booth as she continued "And just to let you know, I am not a kid, I am nineteen old years old"

"For all we know this is just some sick prank" Booth said, his eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke.

"Give her a break Booth" It had been the dark haired woman she had met earlier who was defending her, she had learned that the woman's name is Angela, Angela had been very nice to October sense she had arrived, so she couldn't help but smile slightly as Angela moved closer to her in a very protective manner.

"Yeah, I mean, if she convinced Brennan that she must be legit" This time it had been the short, curly haired man who spoke, she had learned that his name is Hodgins.

"Thank you" October said turning towards Angela and Hodgins for a brief moment before turning back to Booth and saying "And I am most definitely "Legit" she used her fingers to make quotation marks at the word "Legit".

Booth stared at her for a few more seconds before saying " Alright, start at the beginning and be quick about it, me and bones have a dead body waiting for us" He then sat down on the couch muttering "this outta be good" under his breath"

October gave Booth an angry glare before she reached into her bag, she pulled out what appeared to be a very colorful picture, the colors were lined in different sequences, forming an abstract image.

"Were did you get that?" Angela said sounding as though all of the wind had been knocked out of her.

"A package... I received a package with this painting in it about a week ago" October said in a matter-of-fact voice "There hadn't been a return address but I'm positive that Zach was the one who sent it"

"But... So it was you who-" Angela began, but October raised a hand to silence her.

"Let me explain... you see, about a year and a half ago I met Zach at a seminar, our meeting had been very brief, only enough to find out each others names, but I suppose he must have been able to use that information to find my address, I am not entirely sure why he would send the package to me but I think it might be because of how little we knew about each other... Anyways, back to the point, the package... It had only taken me a few moments to realize that the painting was a riddle, each color represents either a piece of a numerical code or a partial sentence, and after few hours I had found a pattern among the numerical code pieces, they had been made up entirely of zeros and ones, which prompted me to come to the conclusion that is was a computer encryption, the code led to a series of photos and documents, the photos were of one man, the man who I presume is the apprentice"

"And how does this prove squinty's innocence?" Booth asked leaning forwards from his current position on the couch, it seems that she had gotten his attention.

"I'm getting to that... Originally, the Gormagon killed his apprentice to recruit Zach, but he soon realized that Zach was too close to the investigation and the people who were investigating ... Zach meant it when he said that he was expendable, he was very much expendable, the Gormagon had recruited yet another apprentice, this one truly a windows son, and he had been about to kill Zach, but he decided that Zach could work as a distraction from the real apprentice, a decoy, if you will. Zach did not eat anyone or kill anyone, the only thing that he actually did was cause the explosion; the Gormagon had blackmailed him into-"

"Wait- he blackmailed him? how?" Hodgins suddenly asked, interrupting Octobers rambling.

"Well... Zach wasn't about to give in unless the Gormagon had given him a very good reason too.. The Gormagon had found the one thing that Zach would respond too besides logic... He had threatened to kill his friends... "

There was a moment of silence before Bone's finally said "If Zach had only caused the explosion, then who stole the canine teeth to make the dentures for the Gormagon?"

"The other apprentice, he must have gained access to LIMBO somehow... Anyways, as I was saying Zach caused the explosion, he had to have something that would lead the evidence back to him, the explosion had allowed for the Gormagon to sneak in a steal the silver skeleton, therefore giving the illusion that Zach had been helping him all along."

"So in short, Zach really wasn't the apprentice?" Asked a woman that October didn't recognize, she must have been standing near the edges of the room because it was only now that October realized that she had been listening this whole time, the woman looked very professional, and from where October stood she could see that her identification card read " Dr. Camille Saroyan"

"No, he was not"

The others turned to face the woman, apparently October hadn't been the only one who hadn't heard her entrance.

The woman looked at the others with a mildly surprised expression on her face "Oh, I didn't mean to intrude on your little discussion , you can continue, next time though you could tell me when you decide to not to come to a crime scene"

"You were supposed to call her" Angela scolded Hodgins.

"Sorry, I forgot, I just got caught up in all the excitement ..." his voice trailed off as Angela glared at him, he turned to face Dr. Saroyan with a sheepish grin on his face "sorry... "

"Just don't let if happen again" she said with a sigh before turning back to October saying "sorry to interrupt, please continue"

October glanced between them, confused by there conversation , but she decided to leave it alone, she had been about to continue when Booth asked "Look, its great that we all know that Zach isn't the apprentice, but knowing wont do us any good, we need _proof"_

"Which I have, but-" October was cut off by Booth "we cant use it" he sighed and collapsed into the couch, in sunk inward under his weight.

"Technically we could use it, but as soon as the apprentice knows that we are looking for him he is going to assume that Zach told us, considering that originally Zach had been the only one that knew about him, and then he is going to kill him"

"And you after he finds out about the painting" Bones said

"So what are we supposed to do?" Hodgins asked.

October had been about to answer him but Bones cut in and asked "Where does Angela fit in to all of this?"

October turned to Angela, who in turn sighed and faced the group before saying "a coupe of weeks after Zach was put into the hospital he gave me this... This ...Graph, and told me that he wanted me to use it to draw some soft of picture... Anyways, every week he would send me more and more coordinates and what I was supposed to draw in each coordinate, when the painting was finished he gave an address to send it too, which now I know was actually October's address... I swear I didn't know what it was about, every time I asked him he would just start rambling about how "it wasn't time yet" or something like that..."

"I think I know what he meant by that..." October said sounding as though she were deep in thought "There were a few pieces of sentences that I couldn't make sense of in the painting, things like 'nine days' and 'coming'...but that could have meant..." She trailed off and the others stared at her in bafflement, waiting for her to continue her explanation.

But a man appeared at the doorway, temporarily distracting them, he had a package for Dr. Brennan, she sighed for it then brought it over to her desk and began opening it, October didn't pay her any mind, she simply continued thinking.

"Booth" Brennan said suddenly, she had a slight urgency in her voice, this time October did pay attention to her. "This is now a crime scene" she said in a dark voice.

The group walked over to the desk, Angela gasped, covering her eyes she said "Why is it that _we _are the ones who always gets sent body parts in packages?"

October came to a sudden realization, she didn't have to look in the box to know what it was, she approached the table and glanced down into the cardboard box, inside of it there was a human skull " Was the victim Male, Caucasian, between the ages of twenty five and thirty?" she asked averting her eyes form the box , it wasn't the fact that it was human remains that bothered her, she had worked with human remains before, it was that she might know who it was.

Brennan looked up at her "You don't think..." her sentence trailed off as October nodded.

"Angela" Brennan called out her name a bit too sharply "I'm going to need dental records"

"You know who it is?" Angela asked, she was now five feet away from them, still averting her eyes from the desk.

"I am not going to jump to conclusions" Brennan said simply

"Whose dental records do you need, Brennan?" Angela asked

"I need... " Dr. Brennan took a deep breath before continuing, her face was set in a rigid expression of determination "Dr. Addy's dental records..."

_Authors note:_ **If you want me to update the story then please review, **(my goal is at least one review per chapter).


	2. The unfolding of a sly disguise

_Thank you Greaser4life and star1the2friend for reviewing the previous chapter, I very much appreciated it. _

_I have modified this chapter from it slightly from its original version, I hope you all enjoy it. **  
**_

_-I do not own Bones._

Chapter Two: The unfolding of a sly disguise

A melancholic stillness had settled over the lab, it took it's course through each and everyone of them, and each of them responded in their own way, Dr. Brennan went to work on examining the skull, October had offered to help her, it seemed that today (of all days) her assistant couldn't come in... It was ironic in way, that she finally was able to work with the brilliant forensic anthropologist that she had heard so much about.. That she had, at one point in her life, idealized... It could have been thrilling... a wonderful experience... If it had been under any other circumstances...And if she still idealized her...

October walked up to Angela's office doorway and knocked on the already open doorway, her voice was barely audible when she said "Hello, Angela".

Angela-who had been staring at the ground while spinning slowly in her chair- looked up, her eyes watered slightly when she saw the skull that resided on the tray that October had been holding, it had tissue markers on it which meant that it was ready for a facial reconstruction. "Hey, October" she replied, her voice cracked on the second word.

October walked tentatively towards Angela, she set the tray down on Angela's desk, she had already turned around and was halfway to the door when a thought occurred to her, she had been curious about something, she wasn't entirely sure if now was the right time, but she decided that she might as well ask, _what did she have to lose? _, she spun around, a bit too fast and she nearly fell over, she ended up doing a sort of dance in an attempt to keep her balance. Once she was stable she walked back to Angela's desk, she hesitated slightly then said "Um...Angela... Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Why don't you want Dr. Brennan to check the dental records before you do the facial reconstruction?"

"I... I just wanted to give him a face, you know?" Angela looked up at her, her grief portrayed itself clearly in the redness of her eyes "I mean.. If this is him then.." She didn't finish the sentence, October guessed that she couldn't.

"I'm so sorry, Angela... I, I guess I was just too late..."

"No" Angela said, a new resolve in her voice as she turned her gaze towards the skull on her desk "Don't be sorry, not yet, we don't know for sure that this is him"

"Angela, they called the, er.. facility he was staying at, they said that he wasn't there..."

"No" Angela said simply

October decided to leave it alone, she didn't want to be the one to crush Angela's hope.

Just then something on the skull caught her eye, she leaned over Angela's desk and snatched the skull from Angela's hands.

"Hey!?" Angela exclaimed at Octobers sudden-and rather rude- action.

"Sorry, I..." her sentenced trailed off, she appeared to be deep in thought as she observed the skull "How could she have missed that..." she mumbled allowed. A second later October was walking briskly towards Hodgins, with Angela trailing behind her attempting to get October to explain herself, but to now avail, October simply marched on, the skull held tightly in her gloved hands.

"Hodgins I-" October began but she was cut short by the sight of Dr. Brennan, it seems that she had already figured out what October had come to tell Hodgins "I knew that you couldn't have missed something like that, Dr. Brennan" October said handing her the skull, smiling slightly, she then turned towards Hodgins and said "Cyanoacrylate and Gypsum plaster, right?"

"Yeah" he said wheeling his chair around to face her, his eyebrows raised "How did you know that?"

"Ms. Caldwell has a degree in Inorganic Chemistry" Dr. Brennan stated

"How did you know that?" October asked her, a look of shock present on her face.

"Surely you didn't expect me to allow you to work with us without knowing some basic information on your background, " She said this as though it were something that should have been obvious to October.

"Um... Alright then..." October said in a slightly awkward tone, she turned towards Hodgins, a questioning look in her eyes, he simply nodded with a look that clearly stated _"yes, she is always like this"_

"Could someone please explain to me what is going on" Angela said, startling them, it seemed that they had forgotten that she was in the same room with them.

"Cyanoacrlate and Gypsum plaster, more commonly known as superglue and plaster of Paris" Hodgins explained, effectively ending the awkward encounter between them.

"And knowing the scientific term for superglue and Plaster of Paris is important why?" Angela asked, there was a slight hint of irritation in her voice as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the ground in impatience.

"The teeth were glued on" Dr. Brennan said "They were convincing enough to look like teeth upon first sight but only upon first sight, it did not take me long to see that they were not made of bone, though they are well crafted, they had a few flaws that did not go unnoticed"

"Which means...?"

"The skull most definitely does _not _ belong to Dr. Addy"

Angela's face went blank for a second before her expression changed to happiness and the settled into look of dread mixed with slight confusion.

"Angela?" October said, waving her hand in front of her face, she turned to the other two people in the room and asked "This is good news, right?"

Dr. Brennan Hesitated before answering, "Yes... But.. There are complications..."

There was silence for a moment as October thought about that, the questioning expression on her face distorted for a moment before a look of understanding took its place, she had been a bout to speak when Angela said:

" If Zach isn't at dead, and he isn't at the asylum... Then where is he?"

* * *

October heard footsteps approaching but she did not avert her gaze from the piece of floor in Dr. Brenna's office that she had been staring intently at for the past half an hour, she heard the footsteps stop and by their distance she presumed that the person had stopped at the doorway.

"Haven't changed a bit have you?" It was Hodgins, she opened her eyes and looked up at him from where she sat on the ground "What do you mean?" she asked tilting her head to one side, her brows furrowed.

"I mean that you are just as weird as I remember you to be" Hodgins explained as he attempted-unsuccessfully- to hide the grin slowly creeping up the sides of his mouth.

"And why, pray tell, are you categorizing me as weird?"

"Dude, you're sitting on the floor cross legged staring at the ground and mumbling"

" It has been a very stressful day, I needed to collect my thoughts…I simply thought that talking to myself out loud wouldn't have been appropriate in such a public setting"

Hodgins rolled his eyes and turned off the portable stereo that October had set on the ground next to her "Where did you get this?" he asked her offering his hand to help her off the ground.

She took it and said "From my bag" she waved in the general direction of a worn out backpack that sat in a crumpled heap in the corner of the couch.

"And do you always keep a portable stereo in your bag?" Hodgins asked with one eyebrow raised.

"I like to be prepared for whatever life might throw at me"

Hodgins nodded slowly and said "okay...Moving on... So when did this happen?" he motioned towards her clothes and dark lipstick.

"When did what happen?"

"When did you become so… Gothic?"

"I am not "Gothic"" she stated simply using her hands to make quotation marks. "Being "gothic" would imply that I am attempting to be a part of a stereotype which I would never do; I simply find that I am very partial to darker colors"

"You'll never do what's expected, will you?"

"Nope, Never."

He rolled his eyes again before saying "Well then, on to more important things. Would you mind explaining to me why you lied to everyone about how well you know Zach?"

"If you explain to me why you didn't tell me that you worked here and why you didn't even show a hint of recognition when you saw me" she crossed her arm as she spoke.

"Well you didn't either" he said this in a defensive tone

"I thought maybe...You didn't want your friends...to know that you knew me..."

"Why wouldn't I want them to know I knew you?"

"It's not unusual for people to be embarrassed by me... I mean you do recall the, er, Bunsen burner incident..."

Hodgins laughed slightly before saying "You mean the one where you nearly blinded your professor?"

"You're forgetting how it was on the front page of every newspaper for weeks..."

"Oh yeah..."

"Well it's not like I knew that he was going to sue..."

Hodgins laughed and put his arm around her shoulders playfully, but their gaiety did not last long, not a moment later they were both startled by the voice of a woman, Angela's voice to be specific.

"Well, well, what's this?" they both sprang apart as they turned around to see her leaning against the doorway, her arms crossed, and one eyebrow raised.

"Well, we er..." October began, she looked at Hodgins who simply smiled sheepishly at Angela "I can explain" he said

There was a short silence before Angela said "well, aren't you going to explain?"

"Right, well...Umm, you see I think that October would be much better at explaining I mean she's been doing that all day, right? " October watched him walked towards the doorway with her mouth hanging open "She'll do much better of a job at clearing this all up than I would have", he slipped passed Angela and walked hurriedly towards his office.

"You haven't changed either, you coward!" October called after him, immediately regretting it, the enormity of the lab amplified her voice greatly causing a few passerby's to stop and stare at her for a moment before they continued on in whatever they had been doing.

She turned back to Angela, who was now perched on the side of the couch "Well?" she said "Is anyone going to explain to me what is going on?"

October sighed slightly; she glanced at the door one more time, internally cursing Hodgins for being such a coward. _What am I supposed to tell her?_She asked herself, she quickly ran through possibly scenarios in which the conversation could play out.

_Yeah, did I forget to mention that Hodgins and I are close friends? How do you we know each other, you ask? Well, I met him through Zach... Yeah that's right, I did say that I had only met him once before hadn't I? Well I lied before... Sorry about that. Well now I guess you're right, that doesn't make me sound very trustworthy, now does it?_

The scenarios did not seem to play out well in her favor.

"Well... Hodgins and I have met each other before..."

"I wouldn't have guessed" Angela did not sound amused.

"We have been friends for many years..." she continued, staring at her hands.

"And how did you too meet each other?"

"Well..."

"Well?"

October sighed in defeat "Through Zach"

"So you lied?"

October grimaced "the word lied has such a negative connotation..."

"Lying isn't going to get you in good standing with Brennan you know..."

October didn't say anything; she simply continued staring at her hands, playing with the ring on her middle finger.

"So how close were you and Zach?"

"We were pretty close… Best friends actually" October glanced outside the clear glass walls, she saw a man approaching them; he looked young, and had dark curly hair.

"Who's that?"

Angela glanced behind her briefly before saying "Oh, that's Sweets he's the FBI psychologist"

"What's he doing here?"

"Booth probably asked him to come down here"

October wasn't entirely sure what that meant but she guessed that the reason for Booth calling a psychologist had something to do with her; she might have clarified this assumption, if the man Angela had called "Sweets" hadn't walked through the door at that moment saying "Hey, so what's going on?"

"Hey, sweets" Angela said glancing briefly towards him before turning back to October and continuing in a sly voice "We were just discussing October's secret love affair with Zach"

"That's an extreme exaggeration" October said crossing her arms, her face settling on a scowl in Angela's direction.

"I thought you two barely knew each other" Sweets said "Oh and I'm Dr. Lance Sweets by the way" he extended his hand, which October accepted saying "It's nice to meet you, and I see that you have spoken to Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth"

"Briefly… So you and Zach were romantically involved?"

October made a face before replying "No, we most definitely were not romantically involved, we were however very close, but nothing more than friends"

They both still looked skeptical but October did not feel like attempting to convince them any further so she changed the subject "So, where did Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth go?"

Angela's face darkened slightly before she replied "They went to talk to the victim's parents"

"Oh…Do they have any leads yet?"

"No, But I might have something" October turned to see Dr. Saroyan enter through the clear glass door.

"What is it?" October asked her, she eyed Dr. Saroyan's right hand curiously; she noticed it was clenched into a fist slightly, as though she were holding something relatively small in size.

Dr. Saroyan raised he right hand to reveal that it was clenched around a small plastic container "Dr. Brennan found something when she was examining the skull, it was a the better part of someone's nail, and I was able to get a sample of DNA from it, I just need something to compare it too"

October furrowed her brows slightly "There was someone's nail on the skull?"

"It seems that whoever was, er...eating the victim had tried to scrape the-"Dr. Saroyan began, but she was cut off Angela who was grimacing as she spoke "We get the point" Angela looked as though she might throw up.

"But we don't actually know who we are looking for" Sweets suddenly interjected.

"Actually we might, that was what I originally came in here to tell you" Angela said as she walked briskly over to the computer, she began typing frantically and as she did the large flat screen television in the room turned on.

"I figured that sense the Gormagon has already sent us a skull, discretion in our search was not going to be an option… So I searched the code you gave me from the painting I was given access to the documents and the photos you had mentioned, the photos were clear enough to get a close up on the new apprentice's face, I ran it through facial recognition and I came up with this" Angela motioned towards the screen as a photo of a young blond man with dull eyes popped up on the screen.

The phone on Dr. Brennan's desk rang suddenly and Angela reached over quickly to answer it "Hey, Sweetie, we might have a lead, can I beam you some of the photos? Oh okay, I'm going to put you on speaker now"

She lowered the phone onto the receiver and hit the speaker button before she continued in her explanation "This is Jerry Smith, he's the head of the Smith's Foundation; it's a large charity foundation that works mainly in funding cancer research facilities" she was still typing rapidly as the photos popped up simultaneously on both the television screen and the computer screen.

October heard mumbling in the background of the call which was disrupted abruptly by Booth's impatient voice "What does he have to do with anything?"

"I'm getting to that" Angela said sounding very slightly irritated by Booths lack of respect for her hard work "a couple of years ago he was in a boating accident, it seems that he liked to go fishing, and on one trip he didn't come back. They found his boat six months later deserted" she continued "everyone simply assumed that he fell off the boat and drowned due to the lack of evidence that proved otherwise"

" Could we please move this along Angela" Booth said; October heard Dr. Brennan scold him in the background.

"The time stamps on the photos Zach gave us prove that he is still alive, he is married and has two daughters, maybe you should talk to them" An address popped up on both of the screens.

"Thanks, Angela" Dr. Brennan said, they heard a beeping nose and the sound of the operators voice, which indicated that Dr. Brennan had hung up.

After a few moments listening to Angela's typing Dr. Saryoyan said "That was too years ago" her voice sounded oddly far off "How can we get DNA from a ghost?"

"He is a ghost, but the Gormagon isn't…." They all turned to see October pacing in circles as she spoke, she looked as though she were deep in thought "Which means that we just need the Gormagon's DNA to link him to the case..."

"Dude, I thought you said talking to yourself was inappropriate in public settings" everyone started at the sound of Hodgins voice, to which he replied "What? I can't join the party?"

October ignored his question "I am not talking to myself specifically; I am talking to anyone who cares to listen…." Her voice trailed off at the end as she continued to walk in circles around the small coffee table that was by the couch that Sweets was now sitting on, he eyed her curiously.

"Booth and Brennan talked to the family, they said that they haven't had any contact with him sense the boating accident" Angela suddenly said looking up from a text on her cell phone "There on their way back here"

October looked up towards Angela, she opened her mouth to speak but changed her mind and closed it again; she did this twice more before Angela got fed up and said "Spit it out October"

"When exactly was the boating accident?" October had a strange gleam in her eyes as she spoke.

"A couple weeks after the Zach said that the Gormagon approached him, why?" Angela replied curiously.

October might have answered if Hodgins hadn't suddenly interjected with a surprised look on his face "Wow, he doesn't waste time"

There were a few moments of silence before October suddenly ran over to the computer and pushed Angela out of the way before she began typing furiously; a picture of the painting popped up on the screen, a grid formed on the picture and she began closing in on certain coordinates, she typed in code and the numbers in the coordinate changed to letters.

Everyone stared at the screen as numbers flashed across it and codes began to from along with certain pictures in the drawings decoding themselves in series of zeros and ones, they were quite surprised when they heard Agents Booth's voice "What's that?"

"That was fast" Angela said turning towards them, her eyebrows raised.

"The Smith's live very close to the Jeffersonian" Dr. Brennan explained as she walked over to her desk to see what October was doing.

"A little too close if you ask me" Booth said. He was still staring at the screen; a mesmerized look in his eyes.

"Angela, what do you know about Smith's educational background?" October asked, directing her attention towards Angela momentarily before she quickly turned back to the computer as yet another series of zeros and ones popped up.

"Well, from what I can tell he liked computers a lot, he has several degrees within the field of computer science" Angela replied, she too approached the computer screen to get a closer look at the complicated codes flashing across the screen.

"I know where you can find the Gormagon's DNA" October burst out, wheeling her chair backwards in an attempt to get a clearer view of her audience, unaware of how close the wall was, she ended up crashing into it and nearly falling off her chair, she steadied herself and continued with her account as though nothing had happened "Booth, you said that some of the evidence was missing for the Gormagon's case right?"

"Yeah, the silver skeleton and the dentures" Agent Booth replied, dubious.

"If you recall the other Gormagons pulled out all of their teeth, and then they wore the dentures, which is why the dentures are missing, the new apprentice wanted to wear them when he ate his first victim"

"And so he pulled out all of his teeth" Dr. Brennan finished for her, her light eyes pensive.

October turned back towards the computer screen "Yes, and if you recall the Gormagon had used his teeth in a bomb last time, which means they will most likely pop up some time during this case, and we can get DNA samples from them"

"What, is he going to make another bomb?" Booth asked; a slight urgency in his voice.

"Most likely not, he will however want to connect it to his murders…." An address popped up on the screen as she spoke "in the painting I found this address of this abandoned apartment house, it seemed irrelevant until I did some more research and I found that Smith had been a part of a fraternity in college and they had rented out this particular apartment house…. Now a few years ago there had been a fire, it had indeed been an accident but it the building had been ruined, which is why the city was planning on tearing it down…"

"And you think that smith might have left something of use to us there…" Dr. Brennan said, tilting her head to one side.

"Yes, it is highly likely that we might find the rest of body there…" October leaned back in her chair, her brows furrowed as she tried to figure out some detail that had been nagging at the back of her mind.

"Wait a minutes I just realized something…" Angela said; her voice had an ominous tone to it "Booth you said that the silver skeleton had been taken right?"

"Yeah, so what does that have to do with anything?" Booth replied as he hovered over Dr. Brennan, by now nearly everyone was crowded around her desk.

Angela turned to face Dr. Brennan "Well… If he has the silver skeleton then why did he send us the skull?" Her question seemed to be directed to Dr. Brennan specifically

There was a moment of silence before Dr. Brennan said "Because he wanted us to believe that is was Zach…."

"But you said yourself that the teeth were not that convincing" October said, looking upward towards Dr. Brennan from where she sat on the office chair.

"Because he only needed us to believe it long enough for him to get to Zach…" Dr. Brenna was now quickly scribbling the address on to a piece of paper, she then nearly ran out of the room with Booth trailing after her "Whoa! Bones wait up!" He called as he attempted to catch up to her.

"When are they planning to demolish the building, October?" Angela asked, her face now taking on a grim expression; for she was nearly positive that she knew the answer.

"Today" October said her expression matching Angela's.

_Authors note:** please review** let me know what you thought of this chapter and if you want me to continue._


	3. Restoration of the dearly departed

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bones._

Chapter Three:

Dr. Brennan's office now resembled a hospital waiting room. Dr. Saroyan sat at the edge of the couch, her knees shaking in impatience, Angela said next to Hodgins on the couch her head resting on his shoulder, he in return rested his head on hers. Dr. Sweets leaned against the wall, his arms crossed as he stared at the ground, appearing as though her were deep in thought, and October sat in the chair behind Dr. Brennan's desk, her elbows resting in either of the arm rests and she was hunched over with her chin resting in her hands, the entire room had a distinct aura of gloominess about it.

Quite suddenly October stood up, her chair slid back into the wall once again starting the rest of the group and temporarily bringing them out of their impatient, dejected stupor.

"Excuse me" she said without averting her eyes from their downward angle, she then walked briskly out the door and headed in the direction of Hodgins office.

Dr. Sweets looked up and watched October as she all but ran towards Hodgins office. Curious about why she had left in such a sudden manner and decided to follow her and check to see if anything was wrong.

Once he was close enough to see through the clear glass walls he saw a particularly disturbing sight; October appeared to be in a disoriented state in which she was breathing heavily and stumbling around the office gripping whatever hard surfaces she could find, he watched as she toppled forward towards the ground in a failed attempt to grip the side of the desk and in doing so she knocked over a rack of test tubes that had been resting in the upper left-hand corner of the desk.

He rushed over to her, she looked up in surprise as he entered the room; his face depicted an urgency that showed prominently in his voice as he said "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine" she said as she attempted to use the side of the desk a support to stand up, she winced then let go and slid back onto the ground, leaving a bloody hand print on the side of the desk.

Dr. Sweets grabbed the side of her arm and had been about to help her stand up but she jerked her arm out of his grip "I said I'm fine!" she snapped, he started; taken aback by her sudden harsh tone, he tried to back away but ended up knocking over a glass of water in the process, causing himself to slip and fall; narrowly missing the pile of shattered test tubes next to the desk.

"What happened here?" they both looked up to see that Angela had been the one who asked the question. Dr. Saroyan suddenly appeared behind her and peered over her shoulder at the bloody scene before them, Hodgins approached the room last, upon seeing them he raised an eye brow, a look of bewilderment present on his face "How did you manage this?" His question appeared to be directed specifically to October.

The situation could have been humorous, what with the two of them sprawled on the ground in the manner of which they were, but October merely saw the situation as yet another humiliating one to add to her (yet-to-be-written) "list".

"I…Er... Tripped" she said, propping her elbows on the surface behind her for support as she attempted to bring herself to a standing position.

"I'll go get the Hydrogen Peroxide…" Hodgins said, a very slight smile peaking at the corner of his mouth that made October want to stick her tongue out at him in a very childish manner.

There was a moment of awkward silence as they waited for Hodgins to return with the disinfectant before Dr. Sweets said "Well…there's nothing left to see here" His shifted his weight uncomfortably as he spoke.

"Right... I'm gonna, er, go examine the contents of somebody's stomach…" Dr. Saroyan said as she turned around to make a rather hasty exit, Angela glanced one more time in October's direction before she turned and left them to sink back into silence as they awaited Hodgins return.

When Hodgins finally did return he was holding a brown bottle in one hand, the slight smile had now turned to suppressed laughter, October sighed a took the bottle from his hand saying "Not one word, Hodgins"

Hodgins facial expression turned to mock innocence "I didn't say anything…" He held up his hands, palms facing outward before he turned around to leave again, October could see him shaking with laughter as he walked; he had always been good at finding humor in her "incidents".

October walked over to the sink, momentarily forgetting about the injuries to her palms she attempted to unscrew the bottle cap; she let out a hiss of pain and cursed in a low voice as the bottle fell from her hands and on to the floor.

Dr. Sweets walked over and picked up the bottle "Here, let me help you with that" He unscrewed the bottle cap and poured the liquid on to her bloody hands, she let out a yelp saying "Dammit! Watch it would you?!" the pained expression her face faded and turned to that of remorse "I'm sorry.." she said with a sigh "I'm not usually like this…."

"It's perfectly alright" Dr. Sweets said screwing the lid back on to the brown bottle "Everyone reacts to stress differently"

October opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the sound of Hodgins voice.

"Don't you think it would have been better to remove the glass from your hands before doing that?" They both whirled around to see Hodgins standing there, a pair of tweezers in one hand, a small plastic dish in the other.

"Oh, right..." October said, instantly feeling stupid for having made such a dim-witted mistake.

"Come here" Hodgins said rolling his eyes before he turned towards the magnifier, October followed him and placed her hands beneath the glass, patiently waiting for Hodgins to finish examining the wounds.

"There doesn't appear to be too many pieces lodged in the flesh" he said staring intently into the glass "Sweets could you go get the first aid kit?"

"Sure" Dr. Sweets said before turned and walking briskly out the door.

A few moments passed, October searched for a distraction trying to ignore the stabbing pain in her palms, she had been about to give up when she noticed a window near the corner of the room and decided that staring at people getting in and out of cars would have to do.

Hodgins suddenly chuckled; causing October jump slightly in surprise "what is it?" she asked her eyes narrowing as she spoke; she had a funny feeling that it had something to do with her.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the smirk on his face as he said "only you could manage something like this"

She might have supplied some from of a witty retort to his comment if at that moment she hadn't felt a searing pain in her left palm; she let out a yelp and looked down in time to see Hodgins remove one of the smaller pieces of glass from her hand.

"You did that on purpose!" she accused him, glaring at him as she spoke.

"I did not" he said in an attempt to defend himself, a failed attempt; for his remark had sounded quite contradictory when it had been followed by yet another chuckle.

October once more felt the urge to stick her tongue out at him like a little child, and this time she did, her actions were met with yet another bout of laughter on Hodgins part, at this October simply gave up and laughed along with him.

After a few more pieces of glass had been removed from her hands and the wounds were cleaned and bandaged she and Hodgins exited the office to join the others; the rest of the group had all returned to the same solicitous formation, the aura of anxiety each of them exuded filled the room to the point where it was nearly tangible.

It reached the point where October had to leave the room, she had decided that she needed some air and had been on her way towards the clear, sliding-glass doors that led to the exit into the long hallways of the Jeffersonian when she saw Dr. Brennan enter, beside her stood a rather unsettled-looking Zach, and coming up from behind was Agent Booth.

"Zach!" Octobers voice echoed through the lab (once again causing passers-by to stop and stare), Zach looked up at the sound of someone calling his name, he appeared confused at first, but it didn't take him long to notice October running towards him- or rather attempting to considering that she was having a very hard time attempting to run in her cumbersome boots.

After a rather comical display (which unfortunately did involve the floor and her face coming into close contact with each other) she finally reached him and she threw her arms around him, unable to curb her enthusiasm.

"October" Zach said, surprised "It nice to see you again, I see that you solved the riddle in the painting"

"_Riddles" _she corrected him stepping back to look at him, she smiled slightly and opened her mouth to speak but somebody beat her to it.

"I take it you two know each other better than you said you did" It was Dr. Saroyan's voice.

October whirled around to face her; she smiled sheepishly "Right... Er… Yeah … But let's not get into that, we should focus on Zach and how he just escaped the clutches of a cannibalistic serial killer…" She turned back to Zach and smiled a bit too widely as she continued "Why don't you tell us about that Zach?"

Zach glanced between the two of them a look of bewilderment present on his face as he spoke "Yes well, I escaped from the loony bin a couple days ago, I assumed that it wouldn't exactly be the safest place for me…"

October noticed that as he spoke Dr. Brennan eyed her suspiciously, it seemed that Angela had been right; lying wasn't going to get her on very good terms with Dr. Brennan. Some part of Octobers psyche crossed her arms and shook her head as the word_idiot_ rang through her mind.

"Look" Booth suddenly said as he snapped his cell phone shut with one hand "Introductions can be done later" He turned towards Zach and surprised him by addressing him directly "You are coming with me"

"What?" Zach said as Booth grabbed in by the shoulder and pushed him towards the door.

"But Booth, we just got here" Dr. Brennan argued.

"Yeah well, I just got off the phone with Caroline" He then began to reach over to push Dr. Brennan out the door but she dodged him, her face contorting slightly displaying her irritation "And if we're not in her office soon, I'll be the next one on that table" At the last word he glanced briefly towards the silver slab on the platform.

As the three of them made their way back towards the door October followed them but just as they reached the exit Booth turned around and held a hand out to stop her.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked her

"I'm coming with you"

"No you're not"

"Yes I am"

"Actually, I need you back at the lab" Dr. Brennan suddenly interjected, they both turned to face her "The victim's remains will be arriving shorting and you are the only person who has any experience within the field of forensic anthropology that will be staying at the lab"

"What do you want me to do?" October asked; her stomach turned as she realized that Dr. Brennan was most likely testing her.

"I would recommend that you remove the particulates first; then I need you to clean the bones"

"Uh, sure Dr. Brennan" October nodded meekly, it had been years sense she had worked with bones, and it didn't help that she knew Dr. Brennan was assessing her skills in the very subject that she did not complete her doctorate in.

Dr. Brennan turned to leave but turned around again to add one last thing "Oh and the body had been involved in an explosion"

"What explosion?" October asked, a crease forming along her brow line.

"The building was blown up" Zach interjected suddenly "It seems that the Gormagon is rather fond of using bombs as a means of intimidation"

"I see that" October said, unable of think of anything else to say as she watched the trio march out of the door and down the halls of Jeffersonian.

"What's going on?"

October turned to see that it had been Angela who had spoken, behind her it seemed that the whole lot of them had come out to see what had happened; they now stood before her, each of them wearing their own form of a confused expression.

"Zach is alright. The building blew up. The remains will be arriving shortly, and it sounded like someone named Caroline is going to kill Booth"

It took them a few moments to absorb everything she had said, but once they had each of them began regale a whole list of questions, the noise continued to rise until Dr. Saroyan finally quieted all of them down.

"Relax" She said with exaggerated slowness "now, one person at a time"

* * *

When the body arrived October had been greatly relieved to find that she did remember what to do. She first removed the particulates (which hadn't been an easy task considering the bandaged state of her hands) and gave them to Hodgins so that he could analyze them, she would have loved to do that herself but today she had to work as a forensic anthropologist; not as the chemist or mineralogist she was used to.

As she had been examining the body she saw that teeth were lodged in the flesh, she decided that it would be best if the teeth be given to Dr. Saroyan in order for her to compare the DNA samples to that of the nail fragment they had found earlier on the skull.

"Why are you examining the remains without my permission?" Dr. Saroyan asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Well, I, er… Dr. Brennan told me to remove particulates and clean the bones, not to examine them"

"Yes, but you don't actually work here"

"I know that but I am the closes thing you have to a forensic anthropologist at the moment"

"The closest…?"

"Well I don't actually have a degree in forensic anthropology" October stared at her shoes as she spoke.

"So you are working on the remains of a federal case when you don't actually have qualifications to do so?"

"No, I am qualified; I simply do not have my degree... Officially"

"What do you mean by officially?"

"I stopped working towards my degree when I only had two weeks left on my internship and about three weeks to finish my dissertation, so technically I do have most of, if not all of, the knowledge required to handle the remains"

Dr. Saroyan sighed "I suppose Dr. Brennan would not have allowed you to handle the remains if you weren't qualified... But next time you come to me first, remember I am the boss here, not Dr. Brennan"

"Yes, Dr. Saroyan" October said and she hurriedly made her way towards the door.

Once she was back with the remains she set to work on cleaning the bones, this however didn't take long though considering that most of the work was being done by the friendly, little, flesh-eating beetles that go by the name of _Dermestes maculates._

This caused a bit of a problem for her; now she did not have anything to do but wait, so for the next three hours her time had mainly been occupied with staring at the beetles as they consumed the flesh of the victim, a surprisingly uninteresting form of entertainment.

Then finally, _finally,_ the phone rang, October rushed to answer it, but Angela, who had been nearby, beat her to it.

"Hello? Booth, wait minute" She hit the speaker button then lowered the phone onto the receiver "You're on speaker"

Booth's voice suddenly filled the room "Alright, so we got Zach out of the loony bin but it's on shaky grounds"

"What do you mean?" Hodgins asked, startling them both by his sudden appearance. October noticed that both Sweets and Dr. Saroyan were also in the room, implying that they had followed him.

"Well, he's in my custody now, and unless we get some hard evidence against this Smith guy things might not work out so well"

"The DNA found in the teeth at the crime-scene match the DNA found on the nail fragment Dr. Brennan found" Dr. Saroyan interjected

"That just means that whoever killed the victim also ate him"

"We need hard evidence linking Smith to the victim" it was Dr. Brennan who spoke this time

"What about the pictures?" Angela asked, she had now perched herself on the side of the desk, with the rest of them crowded around the phone next to her.

"Not good enough" Booth said "The time stamps could have been forged"

Zach's voice sounded from the background of the call as he said "I did not forge the time stamps", Booth shushed him then continued.

"I put a BOLO out Smith; hopefully we'll catch him or at least get some DNA to compare to what we've already got"

"Well what do we do now?" October asked

"We'll come by and drop off Zach at the Jeffersonian, you guys need to make sure that he doesn't leave, and make sure he doesn't get anywhere near the evidence" Booth replied

"Why shouldn't he get near the evidence?"

"Because I doubt that a jury would simply take his word for it if this goes to trial"

"Will it?"

Booth's voice was grim as he said "I don't know" They heard a beep then the sound of the operator; he had hung up.

"Does he always hang up like that without saying goodbye?" October asked, directing her question towards the group.

"Yes, it might be because-" Sweets began but he was cut off by Dr. Saroyan who held up a hand saying "not now Sweets"

* * *

When the trio arrived at the Jeffersonian Zack was directed towards Dr. Brennan's office, where he was to stay for the duration of the day. And Dr. Brennan went straight to the bones, which by now had been cleaned and were laid out on the examination table in the anatomically correct order.

Dr. Brennan made her way towards the table, putting on a pair of latex cloves as she walked, she picked up a Tibia and examined it closely before saying "Well done, Dr. Caldwell"

_Oh good, she is impressed._

"Thank you Dr. Brennan" October said, grateful for the fact that her voice didn't break.

The conversation ended there because quite suddenly Booth burst into the room "A traffic cam was tagged when Smith came up, either he's playing us or he's really stupid because he left a cigarette bud in a nearby ash tray, it's on its way here" he turned directly towards October "Tell Cam to check the DNA"

"Sure" October said, nodding her head still slightly dazed by the sudden excitement.

Booth turned towards Dr. Brennan and said "Come on Bones" before turning and making his way towards the door.

"What? But I have remains to examine!"

Booth stopped in mid step then turned around "The traffic cam was tagged twenty minutes ago, if we hurry we might be able to catch Smith" and with that he left the room.

Dr. Brennan hastily removed her latex cloves and walked out of the room in a hurry saying "check with Hodgins and see if he needs help with anything, if not please check the bones for any marks or potential cause of death"

"Um... sure "October said, not entirely sure if Dr. Brennan had actually heard her.

Hodgins said that he didn't need any help at that moment, October didn't push him, it would probably be better to help Dr. Brennan first anyways so she set to work on the examining the bones; she couldn't help but feel a slight thrill run through her body as she picked up the first bone.

It was odd, how after all these years she was getting her chance; her chance to work with the infamous Dr. Brennan… And yet it did not feel as she had expected it to; though that could have been due to the rather bizarre circumstances.

After working for what might have been hours it suddenly donned on her that Zach had been sitting in Dr. Brennan's office for all this time, being completely and utterly ignored, so she decided to visit him and on her way there she picked up a cup of coffee for him.

Once she reached Dr. Brennan's office she knocked on the door and was surprised to hear Angela's voice reply "come in"

She opened the door and walked into the room and closed the door behind her, Angela sat perched on the coffee table sitting opposite Zach who was stretched out on the couch. October noticed the half-drunk coffee cup sitting on the coffee table next to Angela.

"Guess you beat me to it" October said holding up the full cup of coffee she had been holding in her right hand.

She set the cup down on the table then turned around and shoved Zach's legs off of the couch so she could sit down "So what's going on?"

"Actually, we had been speaking about you" Zach said

October raised her eyebrows "Oh?"

"Yes, Zach here was just regaling some stories about you two" Angela said with a slight grin.

October raised a hand to cover her eyes saying "Oh God, what he you been telling her, Zach?"

"I merely told her some of the rather…unusual positions you have been in"

"I'll kill you" October said, her face crimson.

"Now, now don't get too upset with Zach, you should now that I forced it out of him" Angela said with a laugh

"What did you tell her?" October said through clenched teeth, she was directly facing Zach as she spoke; his eyes grew wide in alarm.

"Nothing too bad… I only told her about the time that you almost backed your car into the pool"

"I don't remember that one" Hodgins said as he walked into the room and took a seat at the edge of the couch.

"You hadn't been there, She and I had been in the only people in the car, and despite my reminding her of how it was illegal to drive a car without a licensed driver when you have only received your drivers permit she still insisted upon driving us to the supermarket ,we made home alright but seemed that she had a little trouble when-"

"Stop. Just stop." October said reaching for one of the coffee cups "Here drink this, it's good for you"

"Why?" Zach said taking the cup, staring at the cup in bafflement.

"Because it lowers the statistical probability of me pouring it down your pants"

Once again Zach's eyes grew wide before he began to drink the cup of coffee a little faster than necessary. October could see Hodgins laughing from the corner of her eye.

At that moment Dr. Brennan walked through the door, followed closely by Booth. October leaped up from her spot on the couch "What happened?"

"He got away" Booth said; his tone grim.

"I've got good news" Dr. Saroyan said as she walked through the door, she immediately sensed the heaviness in the air "What happened?" she asked looking around at the bleak faces that surrounded her in the room.

"He got away" October said plainly.

"Well… I do still have good news…" she hesitated for a moment before continuing "the DNA from smith's cigarette matched the DNA found on the victim "

Almost instantaneously the heaviness in the room lightened. Booth, though still slightly piqued, said "good, now all we have t do is catch the bastard"

Zach who had now been standing near October startled her by suddenly whispering "How does Agent Booth know that Smith is a bastard?"

October suppressed a smile as she leaned closer to Zach and said "I'll explain it to you later"

At that she could not help but remember how much she had missed the utterly absurd contraction between Zach's mental aptitude and social prowess.

That is, until the similarity between the two of them in that respect suddenly donned on her.

_Authors note:please review and let me know what you think of the story._


	4. Where the ends meet

Chapter Four:

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bones._

The day had been a long and grueling one. At this point after all of the excitement October could barely drag her booted feet up the stairs to her apartment. She sleepily jammed the key and turned it; pushed the door handle down and began to walk through but ended up smashing her nose painfully into the door.

She tried again, and still the door did not open, at this point October was in no mood to deal with tediousness; fed up and too tired to get the land lord, she took out her pocket knife and began fiddling with the lock until she managed the force it open.

She entered the apartment and noticed that a small collection of mail had been pushed through the mail slot. With the mail stack now in hand she began reading the return addresses while closing the door and locking it (though the lock was a bit more difficult to use now).

The mail was mostly an assortment of various bills. Uninterested; she had been about to simply toss them onto the nearby coffee table when something caught her eye.

A figure loomed in the shadows; October quickly threw her bag and the pile of mail onto the ground and walked closer feeling as though she were in one of those old-fashioned horror movies, the thought might have made her laugh, if the object of horror in this movie hadn't made itself gruesomely clear.

There, to the left of the marble island in the kitchen there was a rope that hung from the now mangled lamp. This rope was tied to form a noose and the noose encircled the neck of a limp body.

A strong gust of wind blew through the window October just noticed was open; it made the mangled lamp quiver as the body shifted directions. She might have tried to believe that this was a movie; there should have been haunting music in the background if this were truly a movie, but it wasn't and that fact was making itself abundantly clear with the horrific scene before her.

The face of the victim was now turned towards her; was it just her, or were the lifeless eyes of the victim glaring eerily at her? Half of its face looked as though it had been clawed away by some vicious animal, as did a few other parts of its body, there appeared to be a few bones missing as well, the right shoulder pad of what at one time might have been a very nice suit drooped downward, as if there wasn't any shoulder inside at all.

A scream caught in her throat and her feet took on a life of their own as they dragged her protesting body closer and closer to the bloody body, another gust of wind blew through the window; the body shifted again and the wall behind it caught her attention.

The wall behind the body had at one time held her degrees, framed and hung on the wall as her mother had insisted, but now the frames were in pieces and strewn across the floor, October heard glass crunch beneath her shoes as she continued to walk closer.

In the place of the degrees, written in what for now October decided to believe was red paint, there was a message, it took a few seconds for the words to register in her mind but as their full meaning sunk in the scream she had been holding in let loose from her throat.

Involuntarily she glanced towards the window; backing up slightly when she realized that someone was staring at her from the apartment across the alley; the light cast a shadow concealing the person's face and identity; but she knew who it was.

The figure threw their head back with laughter, he was laughing at her terror, mocking her. October watched at him raise his hand in her direction, the light glinted silver off of the gun he held pointed directly at her.

She barely had time to react, she ducked downwards just as a bullet came whizzing through the window, it hit the glass cabinet in the kitchen sending pieces of shattered glass across the room.

October reached into her pocket and yanked out her cell phone, she had been about to dial Agent Booth's number but more bullets whizzed through the window and shatter the remaining cabinets. She crawled out from under the island into the hall that led to the bathroom, she felt her hands come into contact with something wet; peering down the hall she saw that a light was on in the bathroom, the door was shut but water poured out from under it.

Though October was not in the direct line of view from the window, she could still be seen from where she sat. Her fingers were numb with the cold making the task of dialing Booth's number even more difficult. She jabbed at the buttons madly; she had to redial the number twice before she got it right; all the while casting nervous glances towards the window.

After three rings she heard an answer "Booth here"

"Hi, Booth-" she began but was cut off by the sound of another bullet shattering glass.

"October? What's going on?!" Booth nearly screamed into the phone, his voice took on a new aura now, one that projected seriousness.

"Yes, well it seems we had a bit of a problem-" she was cut off yet again by another bullet.

"Where are you?"

"I'm at my apartment"

"I'll be right there"

"But Booth, there is something else-" a beeping sounded, signaling that he had hung up.

October tucked the phone back into her pocket; she looked up searching for a better hiding place. If she were to go down the hall he could easily hit her just by angling the gun properly (and he seemed like he had quite a good aim; having been able to shatter each and every glass item visible in the kitchen), she glanced towards her original hiding spot, perhaps instead of hiding in front of the island she could hide _behind _it. That is if she could get behind it without getting killed first.

She sucked in a breath then leaped across the floor towards the area behind the island, more shots rang out through the air, her heart leaped with joy when she saw that she was nearly there; she only had a foot more to go. But she was a bit too slow in the end it seemed, she let out a gasp as she felt a searing pain in her left leg.

October scrambled behind the island then rolled up her left black pant leg; for once in her life she had been lucky; the bullet had only grazed her leg. She let out a sigh of relief then leaned back against the island, but her relief was short lived because the very next moment the apartment door flung open, hitting the wall with a loud bang.

October chanced a glimpse at who it was; a gasp caught in her throat as she took in the sight of his pale blonde hair greased back with too much oil and his drooping, dull, watery blue eyes that had somehow managed to project a glare heated enough to match the malicious sneer on his face. Smith had found her.

The words on the wall flooded into her mind; _your degrees won't help you now, sweetie…_

He was going to kill her. The idea couldn't seem to form properly in her mind; various voices took the place of reason, each stating a different protest against it;

_I'm not going to die._ _I can't die. I'm too young to die!_

Panic began to take hold of her, how was she supposed to get out of this? She quickly scrambled down the hall into the nearest room; but not before reaching through the now broken glass cabinet door and getting the chili pepper.

Her stomach leaped as the sickly sweet sound of his voice filled her ears.

"Hello, sweetie…I know you're in here….come out, come out, wherever you are!"

His footsteps sounded in the hall; he was getting closer. October frantically searched around the room- which had turned out to be the bathroom-for a way out; but there was none. Her only options were the door and the small window just above the shower, neither of which sounded appealing considering that she was on the eleventh floor and the locked door was the only thing that rested between her and a most gruesome death.

The doorknob rattled signaling the arrival of Smith at her door.

"Aw, you think that a locked door will save you? You poor sweet naive thing…"

She heard the door knob rattle violently; he was fiddling with the lock, trying to force it open. She searched frantically for something she could use; she grabbed the shower hose just as the door flung open.

He came towards her, his mouth twisted into a sick smile as he said "Oh how cute, you're going to try to defend yourself, aren't you?"

Her response was flinging the shower head in the direction of his groin as hard as she could.

He doubled over and she darted (as best she could with a limp) past him, she was about to run out the door when the sight of another man-this one much more bulky and tattooed- standing in the doorway sent her to a screeching halt.

"Careful, Luey. This one's a fighter" Smith croaked from the bathroom.

The man Smith called "Luey" smiled the same sick smile at her before he lunged at her, he grabbed her, wrapping his sweaty and smelly arms around her, she kicked and fought her way to face him, he looked as though he were about to say something but he was cut off by October as she reached in her pocket and threw a hand full of chili powder on his face.

She wiped the chili powder residue from her hands on her pants as she limped as fast as she could to the stairwell, she was almost there when someone jumped from the nearest window saying "Gotcha!" and collided with her sending them both hurdling to the floor.

Now she was trapped, with Smith lying on top of her. He was heavy; so heavy in fact that she could hardly breathe. She had never been gladder in her life then when she saw Mrs. Crawner, the little old lady who lived across the hall from- who was known for being quite the potty-mouth- stagger out of her apartment cursing loudly about all the ruckus that "kids these days" make (no matter how many times she went over it with her the old lady still believed that she was a "kid "in high school and was only living alone because her parents were on hiatus, October supposed it had something to do with her own small stature).

But October's relief soon turned to dread as the realization of how dangerous the situation was sunk in. She had been about to call out to the old lady, to tell her to go inside and lock the door, to tell her she needed to get out of here, but she was too late. A squinting "Luey" hobbled out of October's apartment; gun in hand, with just enough time to pull the trigger as the word "NO!" echoed loudly through the hall.

The gun had a silencer but that didn't mean that maybe October's call hadn't awakened someone, maybe someone was calling the police right now; maybe she was going to get help. These were the sad bits of hope that rang through October's mind as she was carried outside, bound, gagged, blindfolded, and thrown roughly into the trunk of a car; her attempts at defending herself futile.

She didn't know how long she was in the trunk or how far they had driven out side of the city, all she knew was that by the time they opened the trunk she was drenched in sweat and wishing desperately that she had her inhaler with her.

They removed the blindfold once she was in a standing position, then dragged her roughly along a dark field of grass until they came upon what appeared to be an abandoned barn; the door stood ajar and the building leaned slightly to the left; looking as though it might topple over at any moment.

Right before they entered October glanced up towards the sky, in the distance she could see a group of tall metal towers, she hoped and prayed they were phone towers and as she did and idea popped into mind.

Once inside the barn Smith told Luey to throw her in the back stall because they had to "get everything ready" first. She was almost literally thrown into the farthest stall that was so far away from the entrance that not even the bright florescent light above the door was close enough supply even the slightest illumination.

She quickly dug her hand into her left pocket; right before Smith had entered and all Hell had broken loose she had had the good sense to stuff the phone hastily into her pocket. She quickly turned down the volume until it was on mute then dialed Booth's number, which had not been an easy task considering that with how her body was contorted by the ropes that bound her she had to do all of this with her pinky.

She stared at the screen hoping that Smith and Luey were too busy to notice the slight illumination that the phone supplied, she could hear them moving something around, most likely a large metal object by the way it clanged loudly against the cement floor, October tried not to think about what it might be, though something told her that whatever it was it was most likely along the lines of a _skewer. _

The image on the screen changed and by the timer that shown in the right hand corner she assumed that Booth had picked up, she might have considered simply speaking to him especially since her assailants were quite far away, but the gag and the fact that she wasn't willing to risk it restricted her from talking.

She had seen this once on a TV show one lazy Sunday when she had been too tied to do anything more than sit on the couch and eat cookies, she only hoped that she had remembered the sequence of taps correctly. Using the ring that had been on her right thumb she drummed against the concrete floor, tap, tap, tap, she paused very briefly in each of the next three taps; prolonging them, tap, tap, tap, then tapped again; three short taps.

She continued with the sequence that she hoped was indeed "SOS" until she saw a large silhouette moving towards her, she quickly turned off her phone; she didn't have enough time to put it in her pocket so she swept it as fast as she could into the nearest pile of hay.

As soon as the figure opens the door she fell limp against the wall behind her, deciding that "playing dead" might be the safest route for her. The man whom by his bulkiness appeared to be Luey walks over to her and hastily took off her gag and replaced it by tying a handkerchief lightly around her mouth and nose.

The handkerchief smelled funny and something told her that holding her breath was probably the better option at the moment; she glanced around frantically in hopes of finding some way out of the impossible situation, but all she could see was hay and then a strange contraption hanging from the ceiling and a very large amount of hay.

_Wait a minute…_

While trying to ignore the way her lungs were beginning to ach she looked more closely at the contraption; there appeared to be a series of ropes that controlled the contraction and retraction of what looked like a giant bed sheet, after looking more closely she could see that he "bed sheet" held more hay. The old farmer that had owned this farm must have been feeling inventive one day when thinking of a place to store his hay because he had made it so that unless you pulled on the rope the "bed sheet" would stay taut by the ropes pulling it so from each corner, if you were to pull on the rope that hung down just outside of the stall October was locked in then from what she could see one side of the ropes would give way allowing the hay to fall in the space below it; the space where Smith now sat next to a small fire that was casting eerie shadows on the wall behind it.

She felt her lungs constrict, she had been holding her breath too long, just as she began to writhe in pain an Idea popped into her mind, she didn't have time to think through the details because at that moment Luey unlocked the door of her stall, he walked over to her and began to pick her up, she gasped loudly, her lungs giving way to the need for oxygen.

"What the-" Luey began, but October didn't let him finish, she kicked him hard in the shin then darted for the entrance of the stall.

_So much for playing dead…._

She raced towards the rope, it was just in her reach when something latched onto her leg, she lost her balance and plummeted face-first into the hard, concrete floor.

"Not so fast!" Smith said dragging her up from the floor, she felt a hot liquid run down from her nose; she looked down in time to see her own blood drip onto the floor.

She screamed as he grabbed her hair and pulled her to face him "Thought you could get away, did ya?" he said through clenched teeth, clearly he was tired of her high jinks "did ya?!" his voice grew louder and she let out another scream as he pulled harder on her hair.

She reached into her pocket and yanked out the last of her chili powder, she whirled around, grimacing as the movement pulled harder on her hair and threw it in his face, he immediately let go and let out a screech as he reached up to rub it away from his eyes with his hands "You little bitch!" he screamed after her, but she ignored him, and the searing pain in her left leg, she just kept her gaze locked on the rope, but the world began to spin; the corners going black.

_Dammit! _

She yanked the handkerchief off of her face but it was too late, the world was fading away. She reached to the rope; she pulled down as hard as she could.

The last thing she remembers was the faint glow of red and blue lights and the hazy sound of police cars in the background of the searing pain from the flames licking at her body from all directions.


	5. The ember's reckoning

Chapter Five:

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bones._

THREE WEEKS LATER.

"For the thousandth time, Sweets, I'm fine" October said as she leaned back against the limp hospital pillow.

Sweets leaned back against the door frame and crossed his arms "You nearly burned to death and you're going to try to make me believe that that didn't affect you at all?" he asked; incredulous.

"Of course it affected me! But not in any way that I need your help with" October crossed her arms as well.

"Have you ever heard of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?"

"Oh come on Sweets!"

"I'm serious! You should know how these types of events can affect the mind"

"I do, but this wasn't _that _bad…."

He raised an eyebrow "You witnessed a man burn to death while almost dying yourself"

"So? One bad guy is dead, and the other is in jail. I do not see anything wrong about partaking in the pursuit of justice…"

"So you were glad you killed Smith?"

"I'm not glad _I _killed him…But that doesn't mean I'm not glad he's dead…"

"Do you feel guilty?"

"About him being dead?"

"No, I mean about you killing him"

"Do we need to discuss this now?"

Sweets lifted his hands up, his palms pointed towards October "Fine, but if you need anything…." His voice trailed off as he turned and began to walk away

"I won't!" October called after him; without turning around he waved his hand in the air, dismissing her statement.

October slumped back meaning to rest her head against the pillow, but with how limp it was it simply fell through to the floor and she ended up hitting her head hard on the metal beam at the head of the bed.

She cursed under her breath and sat up glancing at the clock; if Hodgins was going to go through with her plan he should be outside waiting for her in three minutes.

She threw the covers back and slipped off the bed, she grabbed her black bathrobe and quickly threw it on before she darted across the hall. She had to be extra careful; ever sense her last attempt the head nurse, Nurse Hamilton, has been very strict about there always being a nurse watching her, the only time there isn't is when Sweets comes by, this time she decided to take advantage of that fact.

Last time though, she hadn't been quite as educated about the halls or the nurses daily routines, she had been caught early on in her excursion by one of the nurses who then reported her to Nurse Hamilton herself, which had not been at all a pretty scene. October decided that she had not been subtle enough; though how could she have been what with that very breezy hospital gown and the pole on wheels she had to drag around with her everywhere.

_Damn you, conspicuous IV bags!_

Now she had learned from her mistakes, she tip-toed stealthily down the halls wrapped up in her cozy bathrobe (which conveniently covered all of her bandages as well- she had been lucky enough so that the flames had not reached her face) and pole-free.

As soon as the door was in sight she bolted outside just as a small old-fashioned red car pulled up on the side of the road, the car horns honked and she glanced nervously back at the sterile glass doors, thankfully, Nurse Hamilton was nowhere in sight.

"Shhh!" October warned as she opened the door and slid inside, she winced slightly as the movement pulled on her stitches "I don't want to make a scene"

"Right" Hodgins said suppressing laughter "That's why you decided to make a beeline for the car right in front of the very _transparent_ glass doors?"

"I-" But decided that there really wasn't anyways she could counter him so she simply stared straight ahead saying "Just drive…"

Hodgins did laugh this time, then he pulled away from the curb and began to drive away, October glanced in the rearview mirror just in time to see Nurse Hamilton run out to the front yard, her face beat red, she couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?" Hodgins asked making a right turn.

"Oh nothing…" October said, then reached over and turned up the volume on the radio.

"I told them all to meet at the Diner"

"Did you tell them why?"

"Umm…."

"Chicken"

"I am not a chicken… You know just as well as I do that Booth is going to kill me when he knows I snuck you out of the hospital…"

October started to make chicken sounds but Hodgins just rolled his eyes and turned up the volume on the radio even louder, by the time they reached the diner the car was shaking from the loudness of the music and the two of them were attracting the attention of many bystanders as they sang along very loudly to the lyrics of "I love rock 'n roll!".

When the pair walked through the doors to the diner they spotted the group near the back, they were all packed around two tables that had been pushed together. The moment Angela saw October she leapt up from her seat and threw her arms around her.

"Hi Angela" October's voice was muffled by Angela's hair, Angela squeezed her harder and October let out a small yelp of pain.

"Sorry!" Angela said backing up a bit; her smile didn't fade though as she continued "I thought you weren't due to be out until next week!"

"Well…technically I'm not…"

"What do you mean by "Technically" "Booth asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well…" October began but Hodgins cut her off "I snuck her out"

"You what?!" Booth asked

"Relax!" October said raising her hands "don't blame Hodgins, I made him do it. I was going crazy being cooped up in there all day long!"

" You've snuck out as well, Booth" Dr. Brennan suddenly interjected

"Yes well, as I recall I only did it to save you" Booth said crossing his arms

"Give her a break, Booth" Angela said directing October towards an empty seat "let her have a little fun, she has been in the hospital for _three _straight weeks"

"Alright fine, but you do have to go back" Booth said, sitting back down.

The waitress came over; startling them, and set down the food that the others had ordered.

"You want anything, hun?" The waitress said, it took a moment for October to realize that she was addressing her "Oh, uh, water?"

"And how about you?" she said turning towards Hodgins

"I'll have coffee please, and some fries"

"I'll be right back with your order" she said before turning to leave

An awkward silence suddenly filled the air and October noticed that Angels was giving Dr. Brennan a rather odd look, she raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips then gestured towards October.

"What?" October said glancing at the two of them curiously.

"Dr. Brennan has something to tell you" Angela said

Dr. Brennan glanced once more at Angela before addressing October "Yes, well, you did a very good job in the lab and after some consideration I have decided that I would like to offer you the position as my assistant in order for you to finish your doctorate"

October was stunned; it took her a moment to respond "Yes! Yes I accept! I- I mean, yes; yes I would very much like that…"

"Then it's settled, we will have to arrange your shift though, considering that I do still have other students working for me, though they should be finished within the next six to eighteen months, and at that time Dr. Addy may return to his position at the Jeffersonian"

"Thank you Dr. Brennan" Zack said, momentarily startling October out of her daze; she still couldn't believe that she was finally going to get to finish her degree.

_And that I am going t be working with Dr. Brennan!_

_"_We can arrange that later" Dr. Saroyan interjected

"Yeah, sure" October said, but her mind was elsewhere… She was still processing all of what had happened. It was hard to believe that it was over, after all the decoding that she had worked through in the painting, after all of the time she had spent at the lab and after all that had happened in the barn…..

_No. Don't think about that._

She would have to face it someday, the flames would haunt her later; she had no doubt that….Sweets had been right about the way this kind of things effect the mind…

But she didn't want to think about that now, she wanted to think about her soon-to-be internship at the Jeffersonian, all the time she gets to spend with Dr. Brennan, Zach, Hodgins, Angela, and booth…..

The flames will come back to haunt her, and maybe they will burn some form of herself away...But until that day comes this part of herself isn't quite ready to die.

_Authors note: I would like to thank all of those who have taken the time to read my story and would like to ask of you to please review the story and let me know your opinion of it. Also, I have been considering writing a sequel to this story so I would be very appreciative if you were to let me know what you think of the idea and- assuming that I do follow through and write the story- what you are hoping to see (or see more of) in it (Romance, more drama, action, etc...)._


End file.
